Winterton Dunes
This is a blog about the fieldwork trip to Winterton Dunes (NNR) on the east Norfolk coast, Winterton dunes is a complex dune system that features many large stetches of dunes, known as grey dunes, blanketed in lichen. The grey dunes are a very important habitat and is rare in the UK and surrounding areas, as of the present, trampling may be causing the lichen on the dunes to die back, during this trip we designed an experiment to test this theory.
To do this we sampled 8 paths, with four transects on each path. The quadrates used were 0.25m squared, and the quadrats were placed in the center of the path, determined by the highest trafficked area of the path, normally somewhere around the mid point. We would then move the quadrat in intervals the same size as the quadrat, meaning the readings would be continuous with no breaks in the sampling, we would repeat this up to 1 meter away from the center of the path. Giving 5 readings in total at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 (meters). After completing the transect we would move down the path 3 meters and repeat the process for a total of 4 transects per path. For each quadrat we recorded lichen coverage in percentage, species richness, and total cover of plants and lichen in percentage, the data showed that there was some correlation between the trampling and decrease in lichen coverage, as on average lichen cover increases with distance from the paths center. To improve the experiment we could have completed more transects, but due to time constraints this was not possible
Issues and Solutions
The major issue with Winterton dunes is that it is a conflict of human interest and wildlife, as the scenery is very nice and the paths are simple, it makes it a popular spot for trail walking, dog walking and biking, in my opinion the best way to mitigate this conflict is to introduce a small network of boards, in place of some of the current paths, in an effort to keep the foot traffic in one location, as such minimising its impact. Furthermore sections of the dunes could be fenced off, or closed at different times of the year, creating a sort of rotation, with such as system, the closed sections of the dunes could recover, while a fresh patch is open to the public for walking. Finally the removal of bikes from the site as the average disturbance caused by a bike rather than a walker is much higher, and as such impacts the system more